Some weird sounds from way back in 2008. I’m cleaning out my hard drive.

[download mp3]

Patriots Not Fools

Politics is just like wrestling
They’re both fake, make no mistake
It’s a classic case of misdirection
Just play fighting for appearances sake

Both sides, both sides
Are really just the same
Don’t buy into it,
Cause it’s a rigged game

        We’re patriots, not fools
        The political parties are the rich man’s tools
        We’re patriots, not fools
        No matter who wins, we lose
   
        X2
   
   
Most people are mostly decent
We just want get on with our lives
We go to work, try to be good parents
mostly do what we think is right

media lies , serve to divide
It’s all a ratings game
Sparks fly, from both sides
But they’re fanning the flames
    
        We’re patriots, not fools
        Media companies are the rich man’s tools
        We’re patriots, not fools
        No matter who wins, we lose
   
        X2

Washington is on the corporate payroll
Lobbyists drown out the people’s  voice
billionaires make deals under the table
it’s just  an illusion that we’ve got a choice

Status Quo, status quo
It’s all the two parties stand for
They never solve any problems
They’re too busy keeping score

        We’re patriots, not fools
        Campaign money Is the  rich man’s tool
        We’re patriots, not fools
        No matter who wins, we lose

[Download MP3]

Tonight at Lone Wolf it’s 45 Adapters, Screaming Rebel Angels and Dirty Spiders. Reggae and soul dance party after the gig with DJs Pickabar and Dolanite.

…best of all, it’s all free!

Yes! The second Pickabar song of 2011. My muse has been really slacking so far this year, but she still comes through now and again. Here’s a tune about the favored designer label of skins, mods, rude boys and other assorted English subcultures.

Fred Perry Fanatic

Fresh new hair cut, crisp new jeans
Jet black polo with white piping
you say my spending is obscene
I say I’m living a subculture dream

    I’m a Fred Perry Fanatic, baby
    and I don’t care who knows
    I earned every dollar that I ever had
    so I spend what I want on clothes

People say we all dress the same
But take a closer look I’m doing my own thing
They don’t get tradition and that’s a shame
I don’t give a damn about trends or fame

    chorus

I rock the laurel wreath from my head to my shoes
Snow white polo and the piping is blue
There’s more to life than fashion, yeah that’s true
But I make sure I look good no matter what I do

    chorus

[Download MP3]

Hopefully, this opens the floodgates.

Hey, it’s the first Pickabar tune of 2011! Just when I had started to worry that maybe the well was running dry, I finally got something done.

I’ve wanted to write a song called “Cheap”  since I finished Ellen Ruppel Shell’s great book, “Cheap: The High Cost of Discount Culture.” If you haven’t read it, I highly recommend picking up a copy. It really opened my eyes to the true cost of our obsession with low prices. The question we never ask ourselves is, “how do they keep the prices so low?” The answer is  as simple as it is depressing.

They do so by defraying the up front cost of the things we purchase by selling us low quality goods made by people who are paid substandard wages. The things we buy don’t last as long and you end up spending more money replacing them, but all we care about is the price on the sticker.

They keep the prices low by homogenizing goods and replacing fairly paid craftsman with unfair labor practices. Imagine if the Wal-Mart listed, “loss of decent jobs in the future” on their price stickers. Imagine if their slogan, “Save money and live better” was truthful: “Save Money by offshoring jobs and replacing entrepreneurship with the chance for your children to be  poorly paid employees without benefits.” The companies we work for no longer value us as employees, so we don’t have any great attachment to them or the products that we produce for them.

They keep prices low by manipulating corrupt politicians into giving them sweetheart deals where they can rip-off our shared resources with impunity. The politicians they own make sure that public policy never takes them to task for making huge profits by spoiling things that belong to all of us.

They keep prices down by convincing us that quality is something that only the rich deserve. What heirlooms will the average person be able to pass along to future generations? The things we buy today are shiny, functional and completely ephemeral.

I’ll give you an example from my personal life. I bought the original Motorola Droid about a year ago. It was a wonderful device. I carried it with me everywhere and it became an indispensable tool. A few months ago, the touchscreen started to wonky as if it were possessed. I searched around the web and it became clear that this was a design flaw that a lot of people were running into. I soldiered on for a while, but it’s become practically unusable in the last few weeks.

I contacted Verizon, assuming that their repair department would be able to fix the offending part. No dice. They were aware of the problem and I got the impression that they had dealt with a lot of customers facing the same issue. The only assistance they could offer me was a deal on a new phone. A new phone which will probably last a year before needing to be replaced.

I did some more research and the part that needs replacing only costs $35. Unfortunately, the phone wasn’t designed with repairs in mind. Perhaps I’m cynical, but I wouldn’t be surprised to find out that they designed it to be harder to repair. In the end, getting the phone repaired would cost as much as it would cost me to just get a new phone. So, I’m going to get a new one. That’s right, after all of my preaching, I’m just as guilty as anyone else. The old phone will find its way into a landfill somewhere, where it will rot for ten thousand years while wasting gold and other precious materials.

Why design a phone that will only last as long as its warranty? Because quarterly growth matters a lot more to the decision makers at these companies than building long term relationships with customers by making great and reliable products. Why shouldn’t they focus on short term growth? They days of company lifers are almost gone. Today’s executives are already planning to move to their next position before they ink has dried on their business cards.

New gadgets are reviewed by reviewers who use the items for a day or two and then never see them again. If the new whiz bang gadget is impressive in a few days usage, who cares that it will fall apart in a year? By that point, the reviewer will have seen two hundred newer and better devices.

Do you remember when I fixed my Samsung monitor? If I hadn’t done the extra leg work, I would have ended up throwing away a perfectly good monitor for $12 in blown capacitors. Instead, I’m reading this blog post off it as we speak.

This way of life isn’t sustainable. I don’t have any answers, I’m as guilty as anyone. But things have to change.

Anyway, I tried as best as I could to write a song about this issue. Unfortunately, I had lots and lots of ideas to write about and not a lot of music to squeeze those ideas into. I finally gave up and just got the song down as quickly as possible. It’s a pop tune, so you aren’t going to learn much. I admit that up front. If you are interested in the subject, I highly recommend the aforementioned book.

Cheap

Cheap is disposable
quality is made to last
we’re filling up the landfills
emptying our bank accounts twice as fast

but it won’t last
it won’t last
it’s already almost in the past

maybe you hate math
I’ll make it simple for you
one is cheap
but you always end up buying two

So what’s cheap? What’s cheap?
What use is cheap if you’ve got no job?
Cheap? what’s cheap?
It’s just another way for the rich to rob us
Cheap? what’s cheap?
Discount shopping is just a scam
Cheap, it’s cheap
it’s corporate profits at our expense

Our pride used to come
from making things with our hands
now it comes from buying
as many useless gadgets as we can

but it won’t stand
it won’t stand
we’ve thrown our future in the garbage can

no one ever asks
no one wants to know
we’re mortgaging our future
just to keep the prices low

[Download MP3]

A few of my friends play in a recreational soccer league. They actually started the league, which is pretty impressive. They play their games about half mile from my apartment at McCarren Park, so I find myself watching them play pretty often. I enjoy watching their games almost as much as I do professional sports. I’m not kidding! I’ve watched games in pouring rain and in a crazy blizzard. I didn’t expect to have as much fun at their games as I do. Why is watching my friends play recreational soccer so enjoyable? I’m not totally sure. Maybe it’s because I completely relish having the chance to support and encourage my friends.

We as a culture have sacrificed a lot to the cult of celebrity worship and our obsession with professionalism. There was a time when the prettiest girl in your town was the prettiest girl in the world. Those days are long gone. Now, I’m not saying that we have to lock Rihanna in a dungeon and never speak her name, but a little bit more locally focused love would probably be good for our collective psyches.

I’d like more of the admiration and personal investment that I am able to offer to the world to be directed at the people who will offer those same things back to me and not just the .0000001% of the population that society deems worthy of our attention and affection. That was what the “Wall of Shame” was about.

It’s also pretty close to my house and the games are on Saturday during the day, so it’s not like I’m fording rivers, rappelling over cliffs, or turning down jam session invitations from Nile Rogers.

Their team is called Fooligans FC. Here’s a little tune I wrote as a tribute to them this week. Hope you enjoy it.

Here We Go Fooligans!

Started in two thousand and seven
when chris brown had a dream
Cam picked out a name for us
and soon we had a team

But things weren’t being run well
there was bullshit and intrigue
eventually Chris decided
to start up his own league

    Here we go Fooligans,
    here we go-o

    Ready to give our best
    through rain or snow

    Here we go Fooligans
    here we go-o

    Here we go Fooligans
    here we go!

Now every Saturday we show up
at McCarren Park again
with our minds focused on victory
we go to battle with our friends

        Even if you beat us on the pitch
        you won’t outdrink us at the bar
        we may never be famous
        but we’re all super stars

        No other team can beat us
        they can’t beat our unity
        because we’re not just a team
        we’re a family

    Chorus

[Download MP3]

2010 has been a pretty slow year for me in terms of writing songs. It seemed like I popped out a new one every two or three weeks last year. One of the big things is that I just haven’t been practicing guitar as often as I used to.

At one point, I decided to try writing on keyboard instead to give myself a different perspective. It hasn’t really worked, but I did write one tune on keys in August called “Don’t Grow Out Of It”. It’s got a little modulation in the bridge, which I thought was kind of cool.

Enjoy!

[Download MP3]

Sometime I post things here just so they are web search accessible. This is one of those times!

I’ve run into situations where the WAV files I export from Sonar have very low volume on several occasions. I’ve finished my new track, I’ve got everything EQed and compressed to just the right level and my track is peaking at exactly the volume I want. I’m excited to share the new song with the world (i.e. Sarah) and then the exported WAV file is as quiet as a field mouse.

Each time, I dutifully check my meters to confirm that the volume is peaking at a good level during playback of the song. Despite that, the exported wav files are much lower in volume than what I’m seeing on the master track’s meter during playback. I tear my hair out checking and double checking settings, adding and removing plugins, kvelling and kvetching.

Then I turn to the Cakewalk Forums looking for a solution. There are several threads there on the subject, but none of them offer anything that helps. People explain the basics of the metering system, the principals of compressing the master bus and other features of the DAW, but it’s always the things that I’m already doing correctly.

…and then I remember to check the Mains. Ugh! For some reason I don’t understand. the volume level of the main outputs is used to set the volume level for exports. It doesn’t make sense to me, but that’s how it works. Why would I want my exported file’s volume to be lower, just because I want to output sent to my soundcard to be lower? I’m also not really sure why the default level isn’t unity, but I’m sure there’s a good reason. Of course, the mains aren’t visible in the Console view by default, so it’s easy to overlook this when your exports are coming out with low volume.

Luckily, it’s a two second fix once you’re aware of the problem.

First, click the button to show the mains:

Then, make sure that the main output’s level is set to unity:

Voila! Normal export levels. Hopefully I can remember this next time and save my self some wasted troubleshooting time.

We’re incredibly honored to be playing with one of the best all time Punk bands and a legendary songwriter Ian Carnochan.

The show was even listed in New Yorker magazine, although we didn’t merit a mention . This is also James’ last show with the band, so I definitely recommend that you come out.

Into the future!

Hey, it’s the first Pickabar tune of 2010! I was starting to get a little nervous, because I usually have a new song in the oven every month. Four months without writing a single tune was a little bit nerve wracking. Every time I finish a song a part of me worries that it might not happen ever again. Thankfully, the voice was proven wrong, at least for one more tune.

When I look out at our culture, I see a pervasive mood of fear. These are tough economic times. Our industrial advances have started to impact the world around us. The populace seems politically polarized to an extent that I can’t remember experiencing in my earlier life. We have some real challenges ahead of us and it makes sense to take that seriously.

It’s natural that people get more fearful as they get older. How will the incredible influence of the baby boomers effect the future as they reach their golden years? Will their completely natural emotional changes distort the cultural environment?

At one point, the news was a public service provided by broadcasters who had no illusions about profitability. Corporate takeovers have replaced that sense of service with the single minded focus on profit and growth at all costs that has begun to completely dominate industry in our country. The news media is now a gaping maw that nourishes itself on our attention. In a world overflowing with information and access, they have no choice but to catch our eyes in whatever way they possibly can. Appealing to the primal part of our brains that is frightened by the thought of large predators is an effective technique for attracting the attention that they need, but at what cost?

Of course, the news media isn’t alone in their hunger for our attention. Advertising has been refined and massaged into a tool to create demand for products we often don’t need by convincing us that without them our lives will be hollow and meaningless. They bombard us with their ads, drilling them into our subconscious by repetition that makes it unnecessary for you to even like or necessarily pay attention for their mission to be accomplished.

If you don’t douse your child in anti-bacterial soap every five minutes they will die! Don’t drink from water fountains, buy our expensive bottled water! No one will ever love you if you don’t have the latest fashions and make-up!

Our schools have lost track of their true mission, to create citizens with the critical thinking skills necessary to be an effective citizen and a capable contributing member of society. Instead, we’ve reach a place where our schools are disproportionally focused on getting students to pass tests and to parrot back facts without any thoughts of  challenging what’s written down on the paper provided. We are raising generations of people who don’t really know how to think critically, but who are also provided with the tools to easily access information of all levels of validity. Our focus on making kids feel good about themselves has created people with low standards and simultaneously high opinions of themselves. Of course they are afraid if the box tells them to be!

Fear is a tool. We can use it as a stick to motivate us to do the tough work ahead of us or as an impediment for accomplishing anything. Like fire, fear can comfort and empower us or it can terrify and destroy us. I don’t have many answers to offer, but I will say that I choose not to be afraid.

…as much as I can.

The TV that you watch
is designed to make you dumb and scared,
fake stories for fake people
fake heads covered with fake hair

Big mouths talk
but there’s no truth in what they say
it’s about who yells the loudest
why let facts get in the way?

  why are we so afraid?
  it’s because they want us to be
  why are we so afraid?
  it’s because they want us to be
   

    I won’t play their game
    I’ll think with my own brain
    because I’m not afraid

The ads that we see
are designed to cause us misery
they fill our heads with fear
then tell us the answer is shopping sprees

We’re brain washed
we’re falling for their credit traps
we’re trading away our futures
for piles of cheap plastic crap

    Chorus

The schools we attend
leave students mentally unprepared
bombarded with information
real wisdom is never shared

Passing tests
is what it’s all become about
learning to think for yourself
that’s what seems to lose out

[Download MP3]

I know what you’re thinking, isn’t there already a Pickabar song about Conquering Fear? Why, yes there is entirely fictional pickabar reader. Consider this a companion piece.